New World Notes

IN CONTEXT

The real world keeps looking for ways to intrude into Second Life, through various routes-- now, in the form of contextual ads, displayed on billboards, triggered by chat.  (Think AdSense, but in 3D.)  As with web-based systems, however, the context can be comically off.  In this demo video-- presented with the help of statuesque Flange Bohemia of ContextAds, the SL company behind this technology-- I say the following:  "I want to go on holiday.  I'll first need a lot of money. I want to go somewhere that has good Indian food. And perhaps play some cricket. I'll drink some fine ale there."  The sponsored keywords are "holiday", "money", Indian", "cricket", "ale", and even if a few of the ads are demo-only, you can discern the system's prone to miss as much as hit.

"There are issues with the technical side," Flange acknowledges, "but a few of those (delay, etc) are built into the SL client."  As with AdSense and web hosts, Resident landowners can set up ad feeds to billboards on their property, then collect a revenue stream as ads are displayed.  The system looks for sponsored keywords, which trigger server-side scripts that in turn make HTTP requests, pushing images and videos to the display.  Advertisers bid on keywords, and tie their products to them with a web link.

But what happens when several keywords appear in a single chat line?

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: BLUE NEWBOMB (TSL)

Blue is a 16 year old member of Teen Second Life. "These pictures was taken at my land in Nailsworth.  I made this avatar because I love wolves and animals."  Her avatar, she adds, "can snarl and put her ears back with a command, with a script a friend helped me with."  A couple more feral action poses after the break.

Rik's Picks for April 17-22 (Updated)

Rik Riel's weekly round-up of upcoming SL events...

April 22 is Earth Day, and this year there are a host of in-world events being organized to fete the planet. Co-organized by the Environmental Council of Second Life and the Luna Bliss company, SL Earth Day features talks by environment experts, live concerts, and tours all day of the new Etropia Island. The festivities begin with an official opening at the Bliss Garden Center (teleport SLURL) and conclude with a lecture on peak oil theory at 3pm at the Avatar Action Center (teleport SLURL.)   

Note: for info on memorials and vigils related to the Virginia Tech shooting, check this post.

Also coming up this week: A tech expo, war women, catamarans, world music, pink parties and reggae pics.  All that and more eco-friendly goodness after the jump...

FOR VIRGINIA (Updated)

Virginia Tech memorial at Info Island. Shrine by Perefim Cao.

Most weeks I run coverage of real world-related events and projects in Second Life only on Mondays, but some days, reality refuses to remain confined.  And yesterday, most tragically so.  Last night there were many shrines and memorials to the innocent victims of Virginia Tech's savage massacre throughout Second Life, and in the coming days, likely to be more. 

At the moment, at least one is still ongoing-- sponsored by Info Island (direct teleport at this link), there is a dispenser where you can take, light, and leave a candle, and be with other Residents from around the world who have also come to grieve.  Some leave flowers, or even sculptures in rembrance-- impromptu and sorrowful acts of creativity, converting grief to a more tangible expression that can be shared by all.

Perefim Cao is a professional builder in Second Life, and knowing he could never reach Virginia Tech in person, created the memorial above, and made it free to all.  He lingers at the shrine himself when he can, and talks to the Residents who stop by.  "And then they tell me stories," he says, "about either something close to VT, or stuff that their friends went through at VT.  Just chatted with a guy whose girlfriend's sister was killed... and like talked to another user who was a survivor at the Montreal shooting in Canada awhile back."  He seems surprised at how this digital representation of a memorial could make plain such interconnections of sorrow.  "Didn't think I would establish the connections with some of the people that I have," he tells me. [Updated 5:40pm]

Sculpture by Darrien Lightworker

There is talk of whole regions and estates that will be kept in permanent darkness tonight, the world itself adjusted to suit the occasion, setting a space for candle vigils and other acts of collective mourning.

Lightworker's description reads: "One blood tear for each soul lost in Virginia Tech"

This post is an open forum to announce in-world events related to the tragedy.  Please post the time,  place, and description, and I'll highlight as many as I can on the front page.

(Grateful hat tip to Dedric Mauriac.)

Update:

- Tenshi Vielle posts word of a new SL group, "Virginia Tech Charity", for hosting auctions to benefit the bereaved families.

- Stephen Totilo of MTV News has more on another VT memorial in SL.

Tateru's Monday Reality Mix

When Steve Jobs recruited Pepsi's John Sculley to join Apple he asked, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"

More than a decade on, Coca Cola wants to reinvent itself as a world-changer rather than just a purveyor of sugar-water and caffeine, with the metaverse at least.  We'll look at what Coca Cola is doing, but moreover, why they are doing it that way.

Also this week, we'll look a fond look at the recently departed Kurt Vonnegut, Parisian garden design, reforestation in ecologically sensitive areas, and our mixed reality metrics, after the jump.

REGARDING HENRY

MIT professor and uber academic of popular culture Henry Jenkins interviewed me last week on his indispensable blog.  We talk Second Life hype, Second Life hope, Julia Roberts (!) among other topics:  part one here, part two here.

VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE, REAL MONEY

Meltemi Editore, a publishing house based in Rome, is sponsoring a contest to design their SL office, and the winners will be selected by a panel of architects, editors, and Mario Gerosa, author of Meltemi's Second Life book.  The design must fit in a 4096 square meter space and total 937 primitives. 

First submission deadline is May 20.  Winning design team comes away with 5000 Euros-- about $6762, or L$1,818,978.

Full contest details here.

GWYN'S GAMBLE

Last week, I mentioned the legal status of gambling in Second Life, and a law professor who believes it's clearly illegal, it's just that the Feds are confused due to SL's cultural hipness.  Last weekend, Gwyneth Llewelyn posted her own thoughts on the matter, and as with all things Gwyn, they make for mandatory reading-- and discussion.  Read it all here.

LIBERATION LIBERATES THE LA WOMAN

Last month I mentioned Avatars, an upcoming documentary on Second Life from two French filmmakers, produced in association with Paris news organization Libération.  It included a link to a clip featuring an interview with an LA resident named "Carlee Cummings", who described her clothing optional experiences in-world, which the producers subsequently took down, to make sure permissions were fully secured. 

It's back up now, and it's worth a watch.  As I said then, "It's become a truism that the exotic dancer onstage is probably not young, gorgeous, or even a woman, in real life.  Well, sometimes she's not.  And sometimes, she is."

For that matter, all the several interviews on the "Avatars" page are fascinating.  And as it turns out, several of the interviews include another level of unreality.

HAMLET ON TOUR

Next week I'll be speaking on both coasts: in Los Angeles on the 24th at the Milken Institute's Global Conference, for a panel called "The Internet's Next Generation: Web3D", to discuss "[W]hat happens when web technologies merge with digital games and virtual worlds, and... how these immersive environments can redefine personal identity, social behavior, individual learning and civic engagement," along with insightful game goddess academic Constance Steinkuehler and my altogether excellent friend Jean Linden, joined by the impressively credentialed James Bower and John Kruper.

Having done that, I'll immediately red eye it to Boston to join Pathfinder Linden, John Freeman, and Eric Gordon for April 25's "The Art of Living a Second Life", a panel associated with the city's annual Cyberarts Festival, and part of a speaker series that "addresses the recent emergence of inexpensive, worldwide, and many-to-many publishing and communication media." 

Thanks to John Kruper of the Cardean Learning Group and Helen Thorington of Turbulence for the invites-- I'm lucky to be joining so many esteemed panelists, and it should be a lot of engaging fun.  Hope to see some NWN readers at both!